


A Legend of Umbar

by LadyBrooke



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-26
Updated: 2017-04-26
Packaged: 2018-10-24 09:30:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10738914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyBrooke/pseuds/LadyBrooke
Summary: On the shores of Umbar, children speak of a man who wanders the shores singing - and sometimes, he rescues children from drowning.





	A Legend of Umbar

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Fic Promptly on dreamwidth, prompt "The Silmarillion, Maglor, the legend of the singer on the shore".

The children of Umbar tell stories of a man too tall to really exist, who wanders the shores singing in the forsaken tongue. Some of the children, the brightest or the sarcastic ones, question how they know he’s singing in the forsaken tongue if none of them know it anymore, but the ones who believe in the legend respond that it’s obviously the forsaken tongue, they’re not dumb, and anyways, it’s not any other tongue of men or elves that makes sense in this region.   
  
The forsaken tongue is Quenya, but none of them call it that. It is the forsaken tongue, because they were forsaken by the Valar and the elves, regardless of what the men of Gondor say.  
  
One of the children nearly drowns on the shores one day while she is alone, and the man saves her. He speaks her tongue in a strange way that says he’s not that familiar with speaking it, but when she asks him about it, he says he’s not used to speaking to anyone anymore, really.   
  
She is upset that her savior is lonely, but he refuses to speak of why, though she notices his hand is all scarred and wonders if he did something that they have thrown him out for and marked him. They have all heard the story of the King’s Great-Aunt, who was taken to Gondor to be their Queen, but thrown out for not becoming one of them. He shakes his head when he asks that though, and says he was rejected long before Gondor was a country.  
  
He leaves as soon as he sees her parents come running down the beach, long before she can see them, but she hears him sing as her parents carry her away.   
  
The legend grows a bit more that day to envelope how he will rescue children as well, but only those that are left alone on the beaches.   
Makalaurë leaves Umbar soon after, but he hears the legend decades after the girl has died, when he returns there and hears a boy talking about how his grandmother was the one rescued and therefore he should be the one to tell the story.   
  
He stops singing for a moment and listens, before moving on.


End file.
